


Deja Vu

by Thisismycanon



Series: Kakarin Drabble Collection [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst, Canon Universe, Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto)-centric, F/M, Implied/Referenced Character Death, KakaRin, Kakashi-centric, hint of SasuSaku
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-07
Updated: 2019-08-07
Packaged: 2020-08-11 15:51:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20156140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thisismycanon/pseuds/Thisismycanon
Summary: Sometimes, Kakashi's students remind him far too much of his past





	Deja Vu

He’d held his tongue just in time, but Kakashi had almost let slip the wrong name as he addressed his student.

Green eyes blinked up at him, not brown. Those soft cheeks were framed by pink hair, absent of purple markings. Kakashi inhaled the earthy scent of forest surrounding them, careful to temper his reaction under the eyes of the kunoichi on his current team. His eye slid to the other two genin behind the trees. Their argument had prompted Sakura’s encouragement of Sasuke's efforts. Her support was so familiar, so similar to comments he'd heard long ago, that it almost pulled from Kakashi’s lips the name he hadn’t uttered anywhere beyond _her_ gravestone in over a decade.

“Kakashi-Sensei?” Sakura said, confused.

The flash of her lashes as she blinked pulled Kakashi out of his memory-induced lapse.

“He doesn't know what he's doing any more than Naruto,” Kakashi repeated. "Naruto might be better at _this task_ than Sasuke for all we know."

“How can you say that?” Sakura's haughty indignation drew a smile from Kakashi, because _ this _ was all Sakura and nothing like Rin. “Naruto _ is _ wrong. It’s his fault we just lost the target. He knows Sasuke is the strongest member of our team, yet he wants to take the lead himself _knowing_ he’s likely to get someone killed.”

“First of all,” Kakashi said slowly, turning his eye to where Naruto growled and flailed his arms at Sasuke while Sasuke turned his back to Naruto with a scoff, “it’s a D-rank mission. I wouldn’t worry about death just yet.”

He raised a brow as he watched the flash of white fur weaving between the branches of distant trees, _ knowing _ the cat would remain out of reach as long as those two idiots wasted their time squabbling (so much like he and Obito used to do) and Sakura remained here, talking to him.

Kakashi set his hands in his pockets and shrugged before pointedly raising his voice. “Well, looks like I won’t have to buy ramen after this mission after all.”

“No!” Naruto screamed.

He flashed through the trees in a blur of yellow and orange - heading in the wrong direction. Funny how the knucklehead heard so well whenever ramen was involved. Too bad his love for ramen didn't improve his tracking skills.

Sakura sighed and when Kakashi turned to her, she fixed him with a withering glare. “You see?”

“I also see Sasuke going about it all wrong,” Kakashi said, eyes creasing in a smile when Sakura followed his gaze to the boy kneeling in the grass to follow the tracks left _earlier_ by the cat, which were bound to lead him in the wrong direction. “Maybe they need your help.”

Sakura gasped, her cheeks turning pink. Kakashi feigned watching Sasuke's investigation of the tracks, as if he didn’t notice the way Sakura lit up every time she looked at the Uchiha boy - just like he used to feign ignorance every time Rin looked at him with similar admiration in her eyes.

“If those two can’t catch him," Sakura said, casting her eyes downward, "I don't think I can be much help."

"Well..." Kakashi leaned a shoulder against rough bark, making his posture look lazier, if possible. “You won’t know unless you try.”

Sakura shook her head. “Sasuke doesn’t even _ want _ my help. He thinks I’m...annoying.”

Kakashi smiled behind his mask. He found the girl's complaint ironic considering he was currently being annoyed by Sakura's persisting presence. When he looked down at her, thoughts of the kunoichi _he _once found easy to dismiss returned to Kakashi full force. Sakura's gentle mannerisms, the glimmer in her eyes as she admired Sasuke from afar, the pull of her lips as she wavered between smiling her pleasure and frowning her doubts, it was all too much like Rin. Her eyes had warmed with fondness even when reprimanding and smacking Naruto for losing his grip on the cat earlier; it reminded Kakashi of the support his slacker of a teammate had received from Rin’s generous whims and caring heart. The heart Kakashi had punched through before watching the smile on her bloody lips and hearing his name whispered with her final breath. His unbidden memory replayed the sensation of wrapping his arms around Rin as she fell, feeling the warmth leave her body, too soon, too young, before they’d ever had a chance.

“Give Sasuke time,” Kakashi said around a sudden tightness in his throat. "He’ll come around.”

“I don't know," Sakura drawled timidly, twirling long hair between her fingers. 

Kakashi watched the strands fall to her shoulder, a pink cascade that seemed to echo his feelings. 

"I do," he said.


End file.
